Plans to build happier workplaces announced

Unions 21 has launched a new drive to uncover if staff and employers can work with each other to build better businesses and happier workplaces.

The “Works For Us” commission will look to understand what it means to have a voice at work and if co-operation in the workplace leads to success in business and improved workplace well being.

Chaired by Labour Peer, Baroness Margaret Prosser, the Commission is looking across the UK and beyond to find examples and ideas from academics, unions and employers on how collective voice has overcome workplace challenges.

The 18-month project will explore how employees can play a positive role in the UK economy. During the project Unions 21 will gather evidence, encourage research and create a series of recommendations and examples for how collective voice can be re-imagined in an ever-changing economy.

NASUWT’s deputy general secretary, Dr Patrick Roach, is one of 12 Commissioners overseeing the project. They said:

The Commission’s work should contribute a better understanding of how successful employers create workplaces that value and realise the contribution of working people.

Through the research, evidence and ideas we collect, we have the potential to highlight how effective trade unions are part of the solution to meeting the challenges faced by employers across all sectors within the economy, especially the challenges of rapidly changing and increasingly precarious nature of work.

The Commission particularly wants to hear unions’ success stories about how workers and employers have together improved ways of working to increase productivity and workplace satisfaction.

Becky Wright, Unions 21 executive director, said:

The world of work is changing. Younger people are more likely and more willing to switch jobs frequently, to experience short contracts and to work in non-unionised industries, often where automation and new tech bring rapid change.

Young professionals tell us unions need to evolve to meet these challenges. The Commission wants strong examples of where working people have been involved in discussions and decisions which have led to better business. Then we plan to share good practice and ideas with unions, employers and politicians.

The call for evidence closes on 17th January 2019 and the Commission aims to launch an interim report in April 2019.